[Lisa’s Review:] Not Myself Today by Muriel Ellis Pritchett

High school soccer star Lindsey Anderson was at the top of her game with graduation approaching and a full-ride soccer scholarship offer in her hand. Then she dropped dead on the soccer field, only to wake up in the body of a teenage sex-trafficking victim. No one believes who she really is. Not even her dad. Chased by her new body’s drug-dealing pimp and rabid parapsychologists out to dissect her, Lindsey searches to get her body and her life back before graduation day.

Can her BFF and the high school nerdy boy she detests help save her life?

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When I first read the synopsis for this book, I knew I had to read it, even though it’s not my usual scene. Not Myself Today is a unique, thought-provoking, and interesting story filled emotion, action, and lots of angst. It’s essentially a dark thriller version of Freaky Friday.

Our heroine Lindsey is a High School soccer prodigy who is mere weeks away from graduating and heading off to Standford University on a full athletic scholarship. After scoring the winning goal in the last game of the season, she collapses on the field and later on wakes up in the hospital in a body that’s not hers. Her ‘new’ body is a fourteen-year-old sex trafficking victim, a drug addict, and on the top of her pimps hit list. Prichett managed to capture the emotion in the book’s early stages beautifully – the confusion, the anger, and the desperation. I kept thinking that I probably would have had the same reaction to the situation as Lindsey. You can’t help but connect and feel for her.

At first, nobody believes her. Annabeth (her new body) has been severely beaten and suffered quite the trauma, making the amnesia and confusion plausible. Lindsey eventually decides to try and solve the puzzle of Annabeth’s life and naturally gets caught up in whatever put her in the hospital. The storyline is well-paced throughout most of the book and has quite a few interesting twists and turns. It becomes a bit predictable towards the end, and the showdown with the bad guys happened a bit too fast for me and simpler than I expected, but overall it’s definitely a successful novel. Prichett managed to address the topic of sex trafficking authentically and unceremoniously, and beautifully weaved it into the plot. Goosebumps guaranteed.

The one thing that was a bit disappointing was that we only learn so much about Lindsey and Annabeth, although they’re our main characters. While we learn about Annabeth’s history through Lindsey’s journey, I felt like there could have been more depth to both of them. The same goes for the secondary characters. I would have loved to get to know them a bit better, especially Annabeth’s friend Neeley.

I believe that beyond the intention to draw attention to a serious topic, the book is meant to get people to think about all the choices we make, all the opportunities we have, all the things we can change, and it does. If you had the chance to do it all over again, what would you do differently? If the sex trafficking theme and the corresponding violence is not a trigger for you, I’d recommend this one. It’s not a traditional read but definitely worth giving a try.

Lisa

Hi! I’m Lisa. I’m twenty-three, a college student and a book lover. I spend every free minute, and most of my lectures, reading all kinds of books, which is how I ended up here. While I particularly enjoy books of the young and new adult variety, I also love historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, all things romance, and one or the other classic as well. If I’m not reading, I’m either working, sleeping, binge-watching my newest obsession on Netflix, or on my way to Starbucks, to satisfy my slight caffeine addiction.